Spindle Issue 1 Full by Heather Falconer

I s s ue 1 // M ay 2010

Issue 1 // May 2010

Contents

Issue 1 // May 2010

48 23 12

62 70

66 82

28 20 4

90 5

Issue 1 // May 2010

Contributors

Editor in Chief, Art Director and Publisher Heather Falconer heather@spindlemagazine.com

07719528622

One element that makes Spindle so special is the team of contributors. I personally have been overwhelmed by all who wanted to be part of Spindle, and the amount of talent involved with issue one. I would like to thank the core team, Emily, Sarah, Dominic, Sam,

Laura, Rachel, Milo and Amy, who have all been amazing, are all a true reflection of the great talent Spindle represents. Many thanks to all of the writers, illustrators and photographers who contributed to issue one, it was fantastic to work with all of you. GO TEAM!

Graphic Designer Sarah Ferrari hi@sarahferrari.com

Fashion Editor Emily Bosence emily@spindlemagazine.com

Fashion Writers Carly Taggart Daniel Curtis Music Editor Dominic VonTrapp dominic@spindlemagazine.com

Music Writers Amy Lavelle Alexa Hall Arts Writers Kathryn Evans Alexandra Haddow

Heather Falconer Editor in Chief

Emily Bosence Fashion Editor

Dominic VonTrapp Music Editor

Sarah Ferrari Graphic Designer

spindlemagazine.com

oopsfashion.co.uk

myspace.com/ sweetsweetliesmusic

sarahferrari.com

Hair and Makeup Lydia Pankhurst Bebe Newson Lucy Brown Laura Hyman Natalie Dorothy Xabier Celaya Ken

Chief Photographer Sam Eddison Photographic Assistant Laura Nixon Photographers Alis Pelleschi Bartolomy Steve Glashier Milo Belgrove Sam Hiscox Paul Spencer Ben Petrucci Paul Larkins Jean-Luc Brouard

Interns Jason Pye Hannah Sazlay Beth Dixon Emily Maynard Navid Humphries Many Thanks Emma Bell Beyond Retro BM Models Mary Falconer Simon Darcy Abbott Ambrose Harcourt Jade Gandey Damian Frizzell Jennifer Anderson Mann Camilla Arnold ‘Cupcake Queen’ Jay Momen John Falconer Bevan Stephens Tom Jackson Josh Sewell Lynne Allen Alison Ellen Charlie Langridge at Ganda Media Electric Hairdressing: Catherine Jasper, Alfie Fairbairn, Luca Viola Advertising Enquiries Heather Falconer advertising@spindlemagazine.com

Submission Email info@spindlemagazine.com

Sam Eddison Chief Photographer

Laura Nixon Photographic Assistant

Rachel Williams Illustrator

Jason Pye Star Intern

sameddison.com

lauranixon.co.uk

missrachelle.co.uk

stylebox.blogspot.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Spindle are of those retrospective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine. The magazine welcomes ideas and new contributors, but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Spindle is printed and published in the UK 4 times a year.

Illustrators Rachel Williams Zoë Bryant Matt Sewell Zarinah Liew Paul Cemmick Maria Sagun Jess Wilson Bryony Fripp Heather Beatrice Webster Miriam Muñoz Researcher Charlie Jane

Spindle started off eighteen months ago as an idea, and with the aid of social networking, it is fast becoming reality. Now with a dedicated core team and numerous contributors, issue one sees Spindle showcase some of the best illustrators, writers, photographers, fashion designers, and musicians, all needing a platform to promote their talent. The concept of Spindle is simple, to promote emerging talent across the fields of fashion, music, art and design. Brighton seemed the perfect place to launch such a magazine. As there are so many known free magazines in Brighton, it was key that Spindle would be different. Coming from a fashion and graphics background it was essential for me that Spindle would be a beautifully designed magazine that people want to treasure. With no listings, no press images, no reviews or content centralised around something that happened two weeks ago. As online publishing continues to flourish, reviews

and listings are readily available to read elsewhere. Hence why with Spindle, I decided to regress against the current trend of online publishing, because I'm sure like many of you reading this, I love to pick up a magazine and truly appreciate the beautiful photography and illustrations. I'm an avid believer that you have to work incredibly hard to get the best, so there has been many sleepless nights all round, to bring you the best possible designed magazine. If ten thousand copies were to be printed, it had to be blumin’ fantastic! Five months into 2010, we have already witnessed the deaths of fashion designer Alexander McQueen and godfather of punk Malcolm Maclaren; both for many of us alike were huge influences to our creative practices. Instead of mourning, lets celebrate creativity, rebellion, British-ness and individualism, which they both did so well. I hope you enjoy issue one of Spindle, and look out for issue two, September 2010.

Spindle Magazine is printed by Wyndeham Grange Ltd, Butts Road, Southwick, West Sussex, BN42 4EJ Published by Heather Falconer © 2010 Spindle What do you think to issue one? Let us know: info@spindlemagazine.com

Issue 1 // May 2010

Styling Heather Falconer Photography Milo Belgrove Words Amy Lavelle Clothes Dig For Victory, www.digforvictoryclothing.com Bow: OOPS! Fashion, www.oopsfashion.co.uk

eth Jeans Houghton is not what you’d expect from someone reputedly raised by a pack of albino wolves in Transylvania on stuffed clams and chewing tobacco: no where to be seen is the fetid body hair or overgrown claw nails. Instead, this elfin, Sedgwickian blonde is remarkably well-groomed; I would even go so far as to say positively un-feral looking. Nor does she greet us in the guttural half speech of the wolf-child. (At this point I'm beginning to think not everything written on her Myspace biography is entirely true…) Kooky is the byword for Miss Houghton, this 19-year-old singer-songwriter who trades in whimsy and fey: “I was always really into make believe”. If you don’t let her Peter Andre imaginings put you off however, you will discover that beyond her forays into the mythological and make believe there lies a talent for creating heart achingly sweet folksy melodies, as Beth and the Hooves of Destiny alternately trip and frolic through delicately tight and fragile harmonies. Her dulcet tones (a stark contrast from her Geordie brogue) are perfectly leant to dreamy tales of childhood sweethearts and dodecahedrons, with the accompaniment from her Hooves of Destiny

ranging from the ethereal percussion of the xylophone on Night Swimmer to spirited clapping and the twanging of the banjo on Hot Toast. Her debut EP, Hot Toast Vol 1, could in fact easily be used as the soundtrack to A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Listening, I feel myself increasingly inclined to believe in fairies and start a fervent clapping to keep Tinkerbell alive… Despite her youth and the fact she‘s only been wielding a guitar for the past few years, Beth’s already supported the likes of Joanna Newsom, Bon Iver and Devendra Banhart. She’s even been compared to Amy Winehouse: granted this may be more about her head adornments… “I had [a wig] I really liked that was called the ‘Dusty Springfield’ wig and it was a massive beehive. Everyone was just like ‘oh it‘s like Amy Winehouse, but blonde’. No. No it isn’t… Amy Winehouse isn’t the first person to have a fucking beehive!” Beth’s big on wigs; she owns eight in total, her favourite one she made herself. They’re all part of an extravagant persona that can be seen strutting the stage in body suits and leopard print and, until recently, six inch platform heels. (The acquisition of a Gibson Les Paul has demanded a greater ability to move around, so the heels have been ditched in favour of bare foot mobility). Don’t expect anything less than decadent, though: watch a Beth Jeans Houghton gig and chances are her loop pedal won‘t be all you go home raving about. “Last night I wore a dress that I bought for like 50 quid! I can’t believe it, I never spend over like, three pence on clothes, but I bought it from this fancy dress shop in Soho. The title was ‘Pirate Queen’ but I thought it looked more like 17th Century. You know when they had all the powdered wigs and all that? I really like all that, like, what was her name? That French one who was a bit of a slut? Marie Antoinette. I really like that.”

Quoting Jimi Hendrix as her biggest fashion icon and extolling the virtues of tranny chic (“it works for the guys”, she reasons) there’s really very little surprise that Beth, who discovered her talent for fashion design before her music, is so set on incorporating the visual into her act. “I really like 60s and 70s stuff and just the whole glam rock thing. Everyone used to make such an effort to dress up and now it’s kind of cool not to make an effort. I just think it’s nice to have something interesting to look at. It is a performance; you can listen to the record.” If you were to think this ended with Beth, however, you’d be doing the Hooves of Destiny a great disservice: no one in Beth’s act is safe. “I get my band to wear makeup on stage but it’s literally like fake moustaches and a couple of tears. But they’re very good about that. They had eyes painted on their eyelids and gold leafs on their cheeks.” Woe betide the writer who witnessed this gig and described the boys as “mild-looking indie boys”… It’s only appropriate that this interview, conducted whilst she has her makeup done, ends with the application of long faux lashes and the donning of her ridiculously oversized, peroxide blonde afro of a wig that equates to roughly a third of her size: how very Marie Antoinette. Or Marge Simpson.. Charmingly contradictory, quintessentially quirky, and rapidly establishing herself as the drag princess of the acoustic folk-pop world, after chatting to Beth I'm only too ready to believe in her fantasy world. However, in the absence of her band sprouting hooves and wings and spiriting me away with them to a Technicolor world, leaving a spray of fairy dust in our wake, I’ll have to content myself with her records: escapism enough.

Issue 1 // May 2010

With the recent explosion of the female, British, singer/songwriter on the scene, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you could find yourself wading through a sea of young girls practicing their vocal exercises and brandishing guitars, or at least a hefty set of lungs, immediately on leaving the house. Seriously, where are they all coming from?

Issue 1 // May 2010

The latest one to be making her bid for queen bee is undeniably 23-year-old, Hereford born, Ellie Goulding. Chances are, unless you have taken a drastic sabbatical from the modern world and are currently residing in a dark room somewhere with headphones on, humming to yourself, you will be assailed with her electro-pop anthem Starry Eyed on a regular basis. Let’s face it: it’s fairly inescapable. Plus there’s the fact that she’s won a Brit, had her debut album go straight to number one in the charts and is busy collaborating with other artists, including Frankmusik and Diana Vickers (that girl from the X Factor with the claw for a hand). Rest assured, she doesn’t let it faze her.

Words Amy Lavelle photography Paul Spencer Illustration Miriam Muñoz

“It makes me laugh because people are like ‘oh, all I hear is Ellie Goulding, Ellie Goulding’, and it’s funny because it hasn’t stopped and people are just continuing to talk about it and people are still blogging even though I'm not the underdog anymore: I'm the main stream”. Meeting her today, she is stretched out on the sofa in the bar area of the Park Inn Hotel in Brighton, dressed in her running gear (having jogged to and from her sound checks at Digital where she will be playing tonight) examining the bruises on her legs and quietly observing that the green tea she has requested is in fact green tea and lemon, which is not technically the same. (I wasn’t impressed either.) Ms Goulding’s own opinion of her fellow songstresses? “I was always a little bit cynical about girls because I thought I knew what their game was and what they were up to; writing their lyrics and stuff, I know what that’s like so I knew their secret a little bit. But out of all the girls that I have the most respect for it’s probably Florence. She’s amazing.”

(A somewhat bemused phone call a few hours later from him and a “blimey, she’s keen” showed she wasn’t joking). How about some William Wallace inspired song writing? “I’ll have to think about that. Maybe. I'm not sure. It might be a bit too weird for people.” So what does inspire you, Ellie? “I'm an observer. I'm highly observant of lots of things all of the time. I think too much. I'm pretty emotional when it comes to love and I'm really fascinated when it comes to obsession and infatuation with people and how people work: I'm fascinated with the way people work.” And speaking of crazy obsessives, ever encountered any Ellie Goulding ones?

“I'm an observer. I'm highly observant of lots of things all of the time. I think too much.”

It is in the footsteps of Florence Welch that Ellie is following, with her win of the critics’ choice award at the Brits. So, what is it that sets Ms Goulding apart from the likes of Pixie Lott, co critics’ choice nominee Marina and the Diamonds and all those other talented young ones splashed over our MTV screens? This one’s got something special.

“I have a weird obsession with William Wallace. I bet none of the other ones do.” I think that’s probably a safe assumption. What’s up with that anyway, Ellie? “Don’t ask. That’s a weird one. Why, are you?” Can’t say that I am. My ex boyfriend was, though. “Really? Why is that? I’ve never found anyone else with the same interest.” I’ll pass you on his number and you guys can chat, I joke. “Well not numbers, that’s a bit weird, but definitely give me his email. [Oh, you’re being serious? Okay.] Oh my god we’ll have to email. I won’t chat him up, don’t worry.”

“No not really. Not yet anyway. Some girl jumped on stage and sort of grabbed me. That was weird. But I haven’t had anything super weird yet. Not yet.”

Something to look forward to. It’s not as if she doesn’t open herself up to that possibility, either, constantly mingling with her admirers with the Nike sponsored ‘Ellie’s Runs’. Always athletic (note afore-mentioned attire) Ellie has found a way of staying in touch with her fans by donning her trainers and sweats and taking them on a sprint around the city in which she’s playing. “I needed a way to communicate with fans and also passing on what I do really and do something positive. It was nice to do something that would put them on the same level as me.” If all that wasn’t enough, May will see the starlet rub shoulders with the likes of John Mayer as she joins him as the support act on his UK tour dates. “Everyone says ‘oh, he’s going to try it on with you’ blah, blah, but I'm absolutely honoured to be supporting him because he’s amazing.” No Ellie, you’re amazing. Then there are her plans to go international, with intentions to fly to Australia next week (the prospect of which makes her grimace and pray that the volcanic ash will still be lingering) and conquer America next year. Shiny new talent take note: this one is stamping her mark. As she promises, “the album’s just the beginning”. Good Lord.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Alessi’s Ark

Modesty and charm are not things one would automatically associate with musicians. Especially young and talented musicians that have been furnished with praise practically since they started performing. Luckily for Alessi Laurent-Marke creator of Alessi’s Ark (and for me as far as interviewing her goes), she has never been one to fit the mould. 12

I prompt her to talk more about her music “I hear you’ve been writing with Johnny Flynn?” I ask, “Yes”, she says excitedly, “and he’s a lovely, lovely man” She certainly has similarities with Flynn as an artist. Both consider music to be only one outlet for their creativity, and also explore painting, acting and writing, amongst others. “I like artists who use every part of their brain creatively, some days I need space from music, it’s nice to take a break every now and again and think “Today’s a day for painting” and then when I come back to it I remember what I love about it and what makes music great. Sometimes I get lyrics from my drawings, or paintings from my songs!” Her childlike enthusiasm is infectious, and before long we are babbling about Graham Nash records and UK folk hungrily, while the interview has drifted somewhat. I try to get things back on track “How is your art going?” She looks serious for a second “Very well” she says firmly “For a while I was writing in the shape of a face, so I have a person to look at, which I would develop into a song, but it isn’t as flash as I make out” I find our conversation is littered with statements such as these, bold initially, only to scurry away again, sort of like mice stealing cheese from a counter top.

“I like how instant the Internet is, how I can write something and suddenly it’s up in front of everyone”

She stumbles in covered from head to toe in thick winter clothing, startlingly young and innocent looking for someone who has already been in the throws of the music industry for some time. We have a few moments of introductions before settling on a rickety table under the fire escape outside The Prince Albert, the venue in Brighton she is due to be performing at that evening. She is instantly charming, and modest to the point of self-deprecation “I'm sorry, I haven’t spoken to anybody today, I feel like I'm just talking crap” she mumbles. I reassure her, and she continues, with a bit more bounce “I like it here, it’s really nice, I just got here this afternoon and met Marcus and went to his house to play music” (Marcus from her band) “I went to the Booth Museum” (A taxidermy museum in Hove) “What did you think?” I asked “Yeah, really good, weird but good!” was the enthusiastic response.

“While Graham Nash’s voice is so effortlessly beautiful” Ironically, this has probably been the only time during the whole interview she has sounded like a teenager, usually sounding either like an excited child or a worldly baby boomer. I ask her about her blog, which is a sort journal of people she has met and things she has done that she would recommend to others, from galleries to songs, to foods she likes. “I like how instant the Internet is, how I can write something and suddenly it’s up in front of everyone, and I can get feedback straight away, it’s nice to get feedback so quickly on songs too”

“I haven’t really had that many problems getting shows or anything, but as a girl I think people are more willing to pigeonhole you.”

We discuss the NME nominations list, which is still surprisingly short on female acts, despite having far more breakthrough female artists this year than usual. “I haven’t really had that many problems getting shows or anything, but as a girl I think people are more willing to pigeonhole you. I am told I sound like Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos etc, they won’t give me a chance, and I like what they do, but that isn’t what I think I do” Does she think her age has been a barrier? “Sometimes. In America they rush you into the street as soon as you have finished playing, I wasn’t allowed to be in the bar! But generally I think I have been lucky, and haven’t suffered too much” I ask her what she is listening to at the moment, and am almost blown away with the change of pace, as she machine-gun fires names at me “Scary Mansion, Magic Magic, Sharon Van Etten, Coal Beautiere, that’s spelled C-O-A-L… She keeps bees, Rodriguez” We discuss a few of these artists briefly, before launching into another conversation about Neil Young and Graham Nash “His voice [Young] is so powerful” she coos

When I ask about the internet’s affect on music generally, I am surprised by her response “I don’t think the internet has affected the music at all” she says rather flatly, before offering a caveat “I suppose the way people find the music has changed”

I can’t help but love that she sees her music as untouched by the outside world, and unaffected by industry panics about downloads and physical sales. This point of view certainly comes across in her music, which I can now see is clearly the most honest reflection of her she could possibly give, while it is tempting, it would certainly be lazy to call her naïve. She has far more control over her creative output than the vast majority of acts in the UK today, and demands the final decision over everything from videos, to cover art (Which she designs herself) Luckily, on Bella Union, she is given the freedom to do this. What is most fascinating about Alessi is that it was apparent that she would have been quite happy discussing music and musicians all night, and it was only when the interview turned to questions about the industry, or her background, that her interest seemed to wane a little. Would you have any advice for upcoming artists hoping to pursue music? The mood changes again, to one of defiance. “Yes” she says “I want people to know that while not everyone might be rock stars, if you want to make a living from travelling and playing music, you can absolutely do it, I wished when I was younger people had said that to me, you can do it!”

Words Dominic VonTrapp Illustration Alessi Laurent-Marke

Issue 1 // May 2010

his decision to follow his life long dream of becoming a comic book artist, possibly under an assumed name or clever acronym? Apparently not.

An oversized pair of glasses and a trucker cap hurry into to The Breakfast Club in Hoxton; Devonté Hynes is somewhere underneath. Since disbanding from Test Icicles, forming his alter ego Lightspeed Champion and releasing his debut album Falling Off The Lavender Bridge two years ago, Dev Hynes (an elusive presence on the new releases scene) has been playing hard to get with his fans. But, with the release of his new album Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, Dev’s back. Sitting down with him today, the obvious question is burning in my mind: so Dev, how do you respond to internet rumours that your hair’s a wig? “I wasn’t aware there were internet rumours.” Ah… For two years, Dev’s only nod to his fans has been his extensive blog and the release of bootlegs online. “I have a real problem with selling myself and I don’t want to do it. It really weirds me out” he explains to me. As I chat to the polite and unassuming 24-year-old, the contradictions in his nature and the buzz that surrounds him become increasingly obvious: a musician who avoids publicising his gigs (“I'm just a bit weird when it comes to playing. I like playing when there’ll be no expectations: expectations I find troublesome”) he has been twice featured on the NME ‘cool list’ actively opposes, his own hype: “I'm not fun live. There’s nothing cool about the music and the fact that I have to put it forward for people bothers me”. Suddenly I'm beginning to wonder if I'm hearing Dev’s parting words to showbiz and Domino Records. Is this his kiss off of a record before he announces

While for most, this dislike of being publicly judged would be enough to set them scurrying into obscurity, not so for Dev. 2010 has seen him announce himself back into the public eye in a fairly big way, with the release of EP Marlene swiftly followed by the album. “I’ve been trying the last year to not think about stuff .” Crippling fear and a taster of life as a hermit aren’t the reasons behind his silence either; what may not have been obvious to those who are not loyal followers of his blog, his time away was not actually spent away, and 2010 looks set to be the pay off. “I just recorded an album under the name Blood Orange. I’ve been working on the next Lightspeed album actually. I think it’s going to try encompass a lot of stuff that I’ve done in it. I realise people see a very small part of what I do and it only really bothers me when I get insults. ’Cause I write for other artists as well [Solange Knowles and The Chemical Brothers to name but a couple] but people don’t realise that. I think it’s funny that people don’t realise that. But yeah, there’s a lot of music coming up.” So, was he worth the wait? I think so. From indie rock songs of heartache, the new album tips its hat at Dev’s classical influences and composers of yore with an étude or two. The Big Guns Of Highsmith alone switches from gnarly finger work on the piano to the interjection of a male choir actively impassioning Dev to “just stop complaining” for heavens sake, as he becomes slightly too self-indulgent (with a repetition of

So, with that said, there was really only one thing left to cover: Lightspeed round! Dev: Oh no. Spindle: CD or vinyl? Dev: I tend to go for vinyl but only because if I get a CD all I'm gonna do is burn it so I might as get the vinyl. Spindle: Favourite shot? Dev: A thing called a pickle back, which exists in this bar called The Woods, in Brooklyn and it’s a shot of whiskey and then a shot of pickle juice. (Laughs) yep. Spindle: If you were a love heart sweet what would you be? Dev: Tweet me. Spindle: Kurt Cobain: murder or suicide? Dev: Suicide. Spindle: Babyshambles or Dirty Pretty Things? Dev: Babyshambles. Only because of Delivery. That song was nearly enough for me to forgive him for everything else. Nearly. Spindle: Would you rather be a fish that could fly or a bird that could swim? Dev: I guess I’d… a bird that could swim. Spindle: Any parting words?

Words Amy Lavelle

Illustration Jess Wilson

following extensive time spent in America, touring and recording debut album Reservoir with Peter Katis in his Connecticut home. “It’s split in two so the band would live on one side and his family and cat on the other. His cat sadly died actually a few months ago: Bob Dylan [RIP]. The studio was in the attic and it was just a really fun experience.”

“hurts to be the one whose always feeling sad” someone had to say it…). If this is a taster of things to come, the silence is forgivable.

Dev: I don’t know. I guess, not really. I guess, people should not pay attention to things I say. I guess that’s a bad thing to say after an interview. No parting words!

The experience gave birth to an album filled with achingly sweet folk pop melodies that had Fanfarlo heralded as the ‘British Arcade Fire’. An album they then proceeded to give away for the somewhat meagre price of a dollar.

Words Amy Lavelle Illustration Rachel Williams

hey made their grand debut with an album that had the humble accompanying price tag of a dollar, performed with an escapologist dangling over their heads and had their tour manager flagged as being a member of a white supremacist group. Sitting down in a Brighton bar beside a faux roaring fire, Amos Memon, drummer of indie folk band Fanfarlo, explains to me that front man Simon Belthazar usually gives the interviews, unless he is not feeling thus inclined, in which case it is Amos’s turn. Offering me the armchair, as he politely insists on perching on the edge of the table instead, Amos quietly informs me of his resolution to be more selfish in life as he too often puts others before himself. Incidentally, will my dictaphone be able to pick up his voice over the loud music and noise from the pool table? Perhaps we should move to a quieter booth instead?

Happily, the band are back in the UK after European tour dates: described on their blog as being “character building”. “I couldn’t wait to get home. I just wanted a change of clothes and throw away my old trainers.” Life on on the road can be rough, and no one knows this better than Fanfarlo (it’s not exactly Kerouac worthy). As well as the spatial issues of five people in a small van there are those times when you have to add hours on to your journey making a detour back to the remote petrol station where you accidentally left your drummer having mistaken a pile of coats for him. And how about when your tour manager is accused of being in a white

supremacist group when you’re trying to cross the border. To clarify, he’s not. “It’s quite funny. We were crossing the border from Canada and he was driving us and as we got to the border he said ‘by the way guys, in case anyone asks you, I'm probably going to be taken aside or questioned by the border patrol police’. Years ago he was travelling to Canada with a group of friends and the border police started hassling them and the girl they were with started hassling back. The officer let them through but then put them down as a white supremacy group, which they weren’t.”

“We had to learn our own dance moves and that was hard enough.”

Their European dates mark an eventual return to home lands

“We didn’t want to give it away for free but we wanted people to hear it. We just tried to give some value to it”. It was also through this album that the band got to work with escapologist Rosalyn Walker. “It was strange to see a grown man suspended above a band that was performing. By the fifth take he was bleeding from his armpits.” Fanfarlo don’t do their own stunts (unless they’re marketing ones). “We had to learn our own dance moves and that was hard enough.” Speaking of his personal desire for a Fanfarlo/Broadcast marriage, Amos tells me what Fanfarlo have in store: “There is some new material. We don’t know if it’s going to end up on an EP or an album or what at this stage”. He then draws a vague map of whereabouts in London each Fanfarlo member hails from and tells me all his nicknames.

Issue 1 // May 2010

personal”, she says of her songs “some are more personal than others”, but she doesn’t disclose which they might be. She says she doesn’t feel self-conscious performing them on stage. “I enjoy the transference of a song to an audience”. Her music seems to be a lovely, inexplicable surprise to her, as much as to anyone else. She says she doesn’t always know what her songs are about until after she’s written them.“One of the songs I’ll sing this evening, I have no idea why I was writing it’. Which one? ‘The Kingdom’.

Words Alexa Hall photography Bartolomy Illustration Miriam Muñoz Styling Alicia Aimee Hair Ken

For her photoshoot, we have Jesca Hoop the Valkyrie, Jesca the languid empress and Jesca the ectoplasmic wraith in white silk with shoulderpads constructed of human hair. So far, so Florence (and the Machine), or for that matter, so Kate Bush and Natasha Khan. But Jesca, it seems, is immune to the lure of the sequins and feathers. ‘This is just dressup’, she says, shivering in the unheated basement of The Slaughtered Lamb, a pub-cumvenue in Clerkenwell. ‘And I can relate to the things... I would wear any of that to a party. Except for that one thing that was like, a mop’. There’s cotton wool in her hands as she speaks – she obviously can’t wait to remove her stage make up. She’s even more forthright mid-songs at the show she plays later that day. ‘I was doing a photoshoot here this afternoon. God, they put me in some freaky shit’. In many ways Jesca is an exciting arrival in the current ranks of

fey, will-o-the-wisp, mythology obsessed art pop stars. Her new album, Hunting My Dress, is a beautiful thing. A product of folk roots – she grew up in Southern California - she combines with madrigals and Southern Gothic scariness to create a work which seethes with snakes and scorching sun, and echoes with hellfire preachers and Pentecostal spiritual conflict. And, my, what a voice! Diamond-pure, swooping and weaving, it’s got an unearthly quality, sometimes witchy and siren-like, sometimes warning and rueful. “The truth is awful quiet; the whisper in the night, can tell you how to break the fever with light” is what she sings on Whispering Light. There’s something of the visionary

Make-up Xabier Celaya

in Jesca, heart-stoppingly mysterious and mystical. She is, however, earthly, as well as ethereal. She lives in gritty, redbrick Manchester, whither she relocated after falling in love with a Mancunian boy while touring with Elbow last year. Right now, in the Slaughtered Lamb, as well as being extremely cold (‘I think that air conditioning’s on!’ she marvels) she seems a bit needled by a question I’ve just asked her. This makes me feel bad, as I really, really like what she does (see previous paragraph). The thing is, though, I have just suggested that people don’t sing along to her music. This was based on something she herself seemed to say in an interview she

gave to The Times: “You know how people don’t really sing along to Björk? Or Kate Bush? I find myself wondering if there’s a certain type of personality — the type that knows that knows what everyone can relate to — and that they’re the ones that can write the songs everyone can sing along to. I'm not sure you can be abstract and still do that.” What I took this to mean is that she’s part of a leftfield, singing songs which are all the more magical for being outside most people’s experience. This is, it seems, not what Jesca meant, not what she meant at all. She says, rather defensively: “I think what I do is a little less accessible, but it may not be and

I think people have opened up a little to music in general. There’s very little that’s actually universal, Bob Marley’s one of the few that you could hear in any country around the world, of what I consider, quality music... But I would like, eventually, to write a song that people sing along to.” But you mentioned Kate Bush and Björk, I plead. “Their creativity is untouchable, in a way. I sing along with Björk, sometimes, but I think that very few people do”. That’s what I meant, I say, not that their songs aren’t wonderful, but that there’s a feeling that they’re not one of the people...

JH: That they’re not from this planet? AH: Yeah. Is that something you’ve ever felt? Jesca looks doubtful. “No. That’s not really for me to say. I'm very used to myself, aren’t I? I'm very affected by gravity and weight. I have to eat food.” So there you go. Jesca is unfailingly polite, but not afraid to contradict. She doesn’t give a lot away. Her interview answers combine vagueness with fascinating but obscure metaphor. She knows herself, you feel, instinctively, but she’s not hamstrung by selfexamination. “They’re all pretty

I try to find out where that rich musical landscape comes from. Her Mormon background? ‘Yeah, it must, it must’. What of Tulips, her eerily beautiful murder ballad? That’s a very bluegrass thing, isn’t it? “I love the contrast between something beautiful and something dark” And is that an aspect of Jesca’s personality? ‘I imagine so. I try not to act it out on too many people! But yes, I guess”. Her songwriting process? “Really just accumulating ideas and taking snippets of conversation and snapshots of scenery and interactions with people and eventually my emotional body is ready to express it. I'm not really a writing exercise type of person, I only want to be focused on one that is compelling me forward. So I’ll work that little piece of sand, you know, until it starts to calcify”.

Maybe her attitude to the detritus of performance – the photoshoots and the interviews – is best summed up when I ask her what she would choose if she could be anyone, from any era in history. ‘A lesbian in the 1920s. Maybe in New York. Just living a completely underthe-radar lifestyle. Yeah, that would be fun’. That evening, at the Slaughtered Lamb (think what a good Jesca Hoop song title that would make) Jesca is more forthcoming. True to her word, it turns out the enigmatic, chilly, unpretentious girl is an extrovert after all. She tells the very sad, very funny story behind Whispering Light – apparently it’s about teaching her devout Mormon mother to roll a joint over the phone when her mom was suffering from stomach cancer (‘It’s a popular way to go’ she notes with mordant wit). Of Tulips she says “we used to sit in the back of the car on the way to church singing murder ballads” with ghoulish glee. She even instigates a game of pass-the-parcel among the slightly self-conscious audience of folk fans and Eastend early adopters assembled. Her performance is, unsurprisingly, brilliant. But then, even in her jeans and t-shirt, even in rainy Manchester, even though she’d probably deny it, there is something magical about Jesca Hoop.

“I sing along with Björk, sometimes, but I think that very few people do”

Issue 1 // May 2010

Words Dominic VonTrapp Photography Sam Hiscox Illustration Rachel Williams

Yeasayer talk politics, presidents, warfare and music... “We’re not doing any wacky shit,” Ira from Yeasayer announced to our photographer early on. The rest of the band nodded in agreement. “We’ll just stand against this wall and you can take a picture”. We don’t argue. Sam snaps a few shots and†quits while he’s ahead. “What – That’s all?” Ira sounds a little surprised and gives a wry smile “If we’d known you were going to be quick we might have gone easy on ya.” We make the short walk to a cafè down the road and sit down for the interview. “By the way, I'm Ira, and this is Chris. Just so you know. Don’t make me sound like him or him sound like me” I assure him my preparation for this interview stretched to finding out their names. Yeasayer have been on tour for three months, and it has taken its toll on their patience. While they are at all times polite, and as accommodating as they feel they are able to be, there is an un-mistakable air of “We’re tired, don’t fuck with us.” In the interest of our dwindling relationship, I reach into my notepad, tearing out all the “Hi, how are you?” questions. Ira is having some trouble with his tea strainer, I show him how it works “Tea is serious business in England” I quip, “I'm from America” he counters, “We’re serious about war. You guys always back us up though” Oh shit.

“I think we’re students of what we are doing” 20

Issue 1 // May 2010

Luckily Chris chips in “You guys have guys dying for no reason out there too” Ira continues, “Afghanistan is doomed to fail. All we can do is make it worse and worse and worse. What are we going to do, continually escalate it? Repeat what the Russians did? Repeat what the English did??” Where they hoping the current administration would end the war? Ira adopts a slightly condescending tone: “The thing about the United States president people that people tend to forget is that their chief job is to be the

head of the military. Master in commander. There is never going to be a US president who is just a peace-nic” I ask if they ever see themselves officially backing a president the way that REM backed Kerry during the 2004 election? “No” is Ira’s short answer. Chris is less sure “In some ways we endorse Obama. The guy is smart. He’s the smartest guy in the room. He seems at least fair-minded. I don’t believe he’s a real lefty. He has left wing policies and right wing policies” Ira adds “It’s naïve to think that Obama can really get that much done. You have to go through congress. A lot of those people have been there forever. It’s kind of twisted” Time to talk about their careers. I ask them if they agree with a quote in Guardian saying Yeasayer “set about being as uncool as possible” “I agree with it because I told them that. They paraphrased me” Chris said with some indignation “You could listen to some Celine Dion shit, and it’ll be kind of a whack song, but there’ll be one little part of it you like. Somewhere to get an idea from.” “I think we’re students of what we are doing” Ira adds, “We try our best to learn from a lot of different sources. That was one of the foundations of the band. We try our best to learn from, say Celine Dion, or whatever song it is. Try to find something in it that we can learn from. We’re trying to build something new so you have to start with as many different pieces as possible” Chris continues “It doesn’t have to be some pop shit either, it could be a Boredom song, or a Suicide song or something” Have Americans heard of Boredom?? A short discussion about Alan Vega and Suicide follows. The comparisons between Yeasayer and Suicide, though not immediately obvious, are certainly there. Neither group shies away from a heavily political output. Both reject traditional song structure and have long synth-instrumental passages. Both are fond of loud, abrasive electronic textures.

Did the overwhelmingly positive reviews for ‘All our Cymbals’ make things easier or harder for them I wondered? Chris isn’t bothered “The reviews don’t translate to selling out Wembley Stadium. The pressure that has been put upon us comes from ourselves. As Andy Warhol said, “Don’t read your good or bad reviews, put them on a scale and weigh them” I ask them about the writing process itself and Ira is first to answer: “We usually go a variety of ways. Sometimes Chris will bring a song that’s pretty much completed. What we’ve done so far is block out a certain amount of time where the three of us get together and set about producing, creating the tones for each track. Sometimes that track is completely manufactured when we start, sometimes it’s just a riff” Chris adds, “All together we then jam things out. We are all very much a part of the creative process. It just depends on what song, and what part” Ira continues “We all have a strong desire to be part of the process. It makes for kind of a nice relationship. I always feel encouraged by the rest of the band” Yeasayer have obvious choral patterns and religious influence in their music. I wonder is this a reflection of their beliefs? “I have felt religious devotion to bands” Ira offers “But no, we are not religious”

I feel like I know them well enough now to ask them about how tired and slightly irritable they seemed when we first met. I try to be subtle “You’ve been touring for three months, and you’ll be touring till may…” “Then we’re off again” Ira interjects. Surely that must be tough? “There are good days and bad days” Ira says rather flatly. “Touring in the states by the time you hit the west coast, you have to turn around and go all the way back. Touring in Europe is a completely different experience. I just think it’s funny to see bands that think something is just going to suddenly happen for them. That’s not the real world. You have to get out there and really make it happen yourself to be successful. Not even mega successful, just to have a job. This is our job”

“I have felt religious devotion to bands”

Yeasayer’s album mirrors this attitude. The record bears all the hallmarks of self-production, featuring meticulous attention to detail, with no easy roads or short cuts. Only the personally and emotionally invested make albums like that. As CD sales dwindle, the ability to tour for long periods of time and still put on a blistering performance becomes all the more necessary and important. Even if it does make you a little grumpy.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Somewhere under the Dome, through labyrinthine tunnels that would make a trail of breadcrumbs seem not entirely ridiculous, are Bombay Bicycle Club. Or at least Ed Nash and Jamie MacColl.

Jack are nothing short of jovial. Any notions of ‘cool’ that may be lingering around them following their nomination for best newcomers at the NME awards are immediately wafted away.

Breaking onto the scene in 2006, the time since has been spent creating their critically acclaimed debut album, building an adoring fan base and playing hardball with a chain of Indian restaurants.

Sitting down, they inform us that they’re in foul moods after a disastrous set at the Student Union. What happened? I tentatively ask. There were feedback issues.

“I was really surprised to be honest. I’ve never thought of us as a particularly cool band. And especially to be the main support as well.”

“We named ourselves after this Indian curry house and it turns out it was actually a worldwide chain of restaurants. But because we’ve overtaken them on Google, they’ve changed their name. We won!”

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that drummer Suren de Sarem is violently ill. “I think our drummer’s really ill”, Ed speculates. “He might be throwing up on stage tonight. We’ve put a bucket out for him. I’ve thrown up on stage before as well, actually”. And how did that go down with the crowd? “Well there wasn’t anyone there!” Jamie exclaims, “that was probably the worst gig ever. The venue was next to a prison”. “You’d get prisoners shouting abuse at you. And I had food poisoning. So that was pretty fun.”

“I think there were more of us on the stage than there were in the crowd”, Jamie laughs. Not so tonight. Brighton’s population of pretty young indie things has gathered outside: Bombay Bicycle Club’s niche market, and incidentally one reason why groupie fun isn’t on their agenda. “There just seems to be a group of 14-18 year olds who come to our gigs. The reason why one wouldn’t pursue the groupie thing would be ’cause most of them are like 16/17” Jamie explains. A helpful interjection of “that’s legal” comes from our photographer. “Yeah but you’d feel bad. Your mum would be like ‘what have you done?’ if she found out.” “Girls go for cool bands” is the other reason. Despite their warnings of their less than peachy moods, Ed and

This is only extended to the reception they’ve received from their fellow tour mates. “The Maccabees are so nice, I feel they may be taking the piss”, says Ed. “I’d definitely be a groupie for them”, Jamie agrees. “I'm going to get on stage with them at the end of the tour and.. cry”. Right… So, why should people vote for you at the NME awards? “Take pity. Just take pity” Jamie says. “We’ll go and get really drunk. If we did win we’d probably stumble up there and be so drunk we’d just be slurring. (N.B. they won).

Having worked with Jim Abbiss, of Kasabian collaborations, on their cracking debut, they’ve taken a break from making fans pant with indie gems by returning to Jamie’s folk heritage and creating an acoustic album. And now it’s back to the studio as they traipse to Canada for a date with David Newfeld, of the Broken Social Scene albums. “We’ve got a lot on”. Their abundance of witticisms duly captured, it was time for the photoshoot; with jokes about wearing red lippy, and slightly alarmed looks when some was produced, we settled for getting them in the shower…

Words Amy Lavelle Photography Milo Belgrove Illustration Rachel Williams

first heard of Stornoway in a review The Fly ran a while back, rather unimaginatively referring to them as “This year’s Mumford and Sons”. It bothers me immensely when journalists do this. I almost shudder when I think of them being discussed across the coffee machine “So what are they like?” “No Idea. Not much like The Libertines. Sort of acoustic” “Larrikin Love acoustic?” “Not really. More folksy. Like folk or something” Stalemate. Let’s throw them in with Mumford and Sons. Then we can get down the pub and talk about how brilliant the nineties were” This needless to say, was not the best introduction. Nor the most apt, as Stornoway do not sound anything like Mumford and Sons. Stornoway embrace mainly British folk influences, drawing heavily from Traditional Irish and Scottish music, as their namesake would suggest, (Stornoway is a small port of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides). The American influences they do have seem to come more from US modern folk ambassadors The Decemberists, or perhaps Neutral Milk Hotel than the sombre gospel and songwriters of the south Mumford and Sons seem to aspire to. It is Robert Steadman who I have the pleasure of chatting to, Stornoway’s softly spoken drummer. Robert bears the hallmark of a man still excited by his career, and mumbles excitedly about a recent performance on Jools Holland “The most nerve-wracking thing we’ve ever done. We played with Jay Z” “Did you meet him?” I ask “No” he says excitedly “but we met The Foo Fighters and Norah Jones”. I question him on the Mumford and Sons comparison “I really like Mumford and Sons, and we’d love to get the response they got, but we would like to stay in our own area and make our own sound. The response to the Fleet Foxes has also been amazing, but we’re definitely our own thing” I hum in agreement.

“You have a tour coming up that has been billed as experimental, what’s experimental about it?” “We’re playing Scotland and Ireland” he says, “We’ve never been there before. We’re even going to Stornoway, playing an 80 capacity pub on the island. Most bands don’t go that far north”

So where does this sound come from? “I personally don’t know that much about folk” he says quickly, pre-empting any follow up questions I might have, “But Jon (Jon Ouin) has an Irish background, he’s been into it for years. So has Brian (Brian Biggs)”

Hopefully this is a genuine attempt to connect with their roots, and not a publicity tool, it’s refreshing to see a band so in touch with where their music comes from. Their tour through rural Scotland and Ireland is what you might expect from a band with such a Celtic sound, but it is impressive nonetheless to see a band moving outside the M25 embracing other forms of UK culture. Rather than bringing their style to the music industry, Stornoway are attempting to bring the industry to them, continuing down the trail set by their forefathers. The best they can hope for is that this year’s Mumford and Sons become next year’s Stornoway.

I ask him about a recent performance at The Tate Modern, and he shows more childlike excitement: “It was really good, sort of a last minute thing. We met Jo Whiley, who has played us a few times, and Reverend and the Makers, who were really nice guys”

Words Dominic VonTrapp Illustration Heather Beatrice Webster

Issue 1 // May 2010

Forget the acclaim of hard nosed music critics, the number of hits on their Myspace page or the multitude of fans jostling to fit into the already cramped venue; if you’re feeling out of touch with new bands and simply can’t face the legwork of trawling through the pages of zines and blogs to find exciting new talent, help is at hand. Words Amy Lavelle Two sure fire ways of knowing if a band is worth paying attention to? Ask yourself this: have they appeared on the NME awards tour and are they from Brooklyn? Handily, The Drums fulfil both criteria. (Incidentally they have all that afore mentioned other stuff too). Since forming in 2008, The Drums have already graced the cover of NME and bagged a spot on the BBC’s Sound of 2010 list, and all on the back of their debut EP Summertime! Following their set at the Dome, we stumbled (literally: it was crowded; there was shoving) across drummer Connor Hanwick for an impromptu chat. So Connor, how’s the tour going? “Really well. We don’t really know the significance of the tour. But we looked at the other bands that have opened it, and they’ve done really well.”

Illustration Heather Beatrice Webster

Honours indeed. Yep, the NME tour generally boasts line-ups of bands who are about to hit it big, and all for a decently priced ticket (which is important, what with the recession and what not). And when thinking of exciting talent you can’t help but mention The Drums. Their surf pop/ post punk debut EP sounds like the love child of New Order and The Beach Boys; what should be a genetic mutant of a mash (the equivalent of that unfortunate looking kid with webbed feet or gills) instead merges into a record that inspires an urgent need to bop and sway along. The tunes make you yearn for summer, preferably spent in 1950s/60s California. And now you won’t have long to wait for the next instalment: “We’re already working on the second album.”

Touring won’t stop them from making good on their promise of new stuff. “We don’t party a lot. Any time we get a chance to be in a hotel room, we have all our recording equipment.”

Making good on the hype, they’re launching themselves into a touring circuit, supporting Florence and The Machine.

Blush, hair twirl, giggle. But, with our neglected pints rapidly going flat and that ungodly feeling of sobriety creeping back in, fags were stumped out and we returned to the dance floor to cut some serious shapes.

“Hopefully I can have sex with Florence when we go on tour.”

I know: you’ve spent all that time planning your entry into that special band’s room, hiding under the room service trolley/ shimmying down a ladder of knotted sheets from the room above/ bribing unscrupulous hotel staff, all to be politely turned down with a “sorry love, do not disturb, yeah?” Don’t despair just yet; chances are, unless you’re hearing that from front man Pierce (“Jon’s asexual. He just has sex with himself”) all may not be lost; they have their stipulations: “Bring us presents! But if you’re cute, we like that.”

It takes about an hour of sound and new tattoo in the loo checks before Ali Koehler and Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls plop down next to us on the sofas at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.

Words Amy Lavelle

many times. I made out with Morrissey once. No, I didn’t, I'm just kidding. ”

Illustration Rachel Williams

Nor are the unwelcome comparisons and labels the least of their worries: they collect the crazies. “We get weird internet groupies: there are people who lave very groupie-ish messages on our Myspace. This guy asked me to marry him. He also bought me a bouquet of red roses and wrote me a love letter.”

When we tell them we’re planning on snapping their photo first, they immediately disappear back to the loos in search of make up before reappearing to sullenly pout down the camera lens, instantly dancing off to greet their support acts once we’ve achieved this. Managing to pin them down feels like a minor victory. (Two out of three will do…) Since forming in 2007, Cassie Ramone, Ali Koehler and Kickball Katy have plummeted straight out of the Brooklyn music scene into almost absurd amounts of success with their spunky, lo fi garage punk and ambiguous nicknames, supporting the likes of Sonic Youth and watching their debut album sell out within ten days of release: “I don’t think any of us really realised how huge a lot of this stuff was until now. We didn’t realise how crazy it was” Ali muses. “It’s crazier in retrospect how fast it happened for us than it was at the time” Cassie agrees. “Like it’s crazy that we opened for Sonic Youth only a little more than a year after starting the band.” Success hasn’t appeared to go to their heads, so much as everyone else’s; the venue tonight is packed as they play a sold out gig. Crowds of kids are waiting around for a

Expect any wild revelations (you know those old rock band clichés) from these girls and be prepared to be disappointed: they appear keep themselves on the straight and narrow.

chance to get something signed by the girls, who spend the time before their set sitting by the entrance, dutifully greeting their masses. Whilst we’re talking, there are requests a plenty for more interviews, and it doesn’t take long before Ali is dragged off; Vivian Girls are the poster children for the idea that three is a magic number.“I think three is actually a perfect number, I really like it. I'm really into triangles. I love the dynamics of the three piece”.

trio, Vivian Girls still aren’t exempt from stereotypes that would prefer to brand them as a grunge Girls Aloud than allow a resemblance to influences Nirvana. “It really bothers us. It’s a lot easier to pigeon hole an all female band than an all male band. It’s a lot easier to get sexist remarks, to get compared to bands you don’t sound like. We’ve been compared to every single band that has a female lead singer. It’s pretty irritating”.

“it’s crazy that we opened for Sonic Youth only a little more than a year after starting the band.”

Darlings of critics and music fans alike, they trample over any ideas of having to suffer for your art. However, Cassie is quick to assure me that it’s not always as easy as they make it look: as an all female

More than over the negative connotations that are apparently an inherent and unavoidable part of life as an all girl band, Vivian Girls are quick to waive any attention that detracts from their music. “We haven’t really gone that crazy on tour that

For the most part, at least. “I was in a semi threesome once but it didn’t involve sex, it was just like other stuff. I think Katy’s been in a threesome.” For the record, it’s whilst channelling a distinctly Cobain-esque vibe that Cassie fronts the stage tonight as she croons into the mic, which, accompanied by Ali Koehler’s performance on drums and Kickball Katy’s nonchalant caressing of her bass, makes for a great set. Wooing the crowd with their set list of stonking tunes, the highlight of tonight’s gig comes when they ditch their instruments and gather around the one microphone for an acappella harmony: something that’s becoming somewhat of a fixture at their shows. Not just an over exposed, over rated band, Vivian Girls have more than proved themselves worthy of the buzz that’s currently surrounding them, whilst kicking in their heels and showing that they have more substance to them than just hype. Expect them to be sticking around for a while.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Words Dominic VonTrapp Illustration Zarina Liew

As the spring arrives, one important decision that has to be made in the calender of any musically minded person. Which festivals to attend? Tickets must of course be bought in advance, Glastonbury is a long shot. Few are organised enough to buy a ticket during the 45 minutes they were available. This leaves you with myriad choices. Bestival sounds good. The line up for Reading looks ok, but that’s not a proper festival is it? The Isle of Wight is far too pop. You’ve always wanted to try Tea in the Park, but will it be cold? It is far. Everyone raves about The Secret Garden? Glade perhaps? End of the road?

Delegate festivals were originally the preserve of sweaty little music industry men. A way that A&R’s could have up and coming bands brought to them in a comfortable and local setting, without having to do any of the legwork themselves. The prospect of having 200 bands showcasing the newest up and coming talent was not only an attractive prospect for labels, it meant music fans could see lots of upcoming bands over a short space of time, all on the cusp of either something or nothing at all. Consequently, the delegate system was introduced. Ordinary tickets could be bought by fans, usually relatively cheaply in comparison with ordinary music festivals, while the industry bods were given delegate passes, and would usually convene at a local hotel, sipping their expense accounts and gossiping about local bands (without giving too much away) Delegate passes could also be bought by regular people of course, but that would cost you dearly.

Delegate festivals were originally the preserve of sweaty little music industry men.

Finally, you settle on one or two, and drag that battered old rucksack down from the attic. Your wellies still caked in last year’s mud. Your tent, that wasn’t completely dry when you put it away, has developed strange dark streaks, and gone a little mouldy. The pegs are bent out of all recognition. The prospect of spending another soggy weekend away seems like a lot of effort, but you don’t really have a choice, do you? This is what people like you do. Every year. It’s fun. What choice do you have?

Recently, indoor festivals have seemed to provide another option for the field-weary.

Of course, with the major labels circling the plug hole, those expense accounts have been squeezed ever tighter, and those delegate photo passes, once worn

with such pride, hang with a distinctly noose-like quality around their necks. This has meant that regular people are now enjoying these delegate festivals far more than the professionals, and that can only be a good thing, right? The Great Escape, The Camden Crawl and In the City now attract thousands of people every year, and hundreds of industry professionals. Seeing a host of upcoming acts over a weekend, spending every night sleeping in a warm dry bed, and not being slave to the weather or the hotdog stands has proved appealing to music lovers and industry bods alike.

While Delegate festivals are different from traditional music festivals, but I think approaching my late 20’s I have come to prefer them. The atmosphere of outdoor festivals has changed over the past ten years, partially due to increasing ticket price, and partially due to the bigger festivals inclusion of more mainstream music, but the feeling of anarchy one used to get is gone. The drugs are still there, as are the mad old hippies, but something is missing. The average festival goer now wants to know in advance exactly what he is getting. Huge world wide acts dominate the line up, and that is what the crowd is there to see. The delegate festival goers are different. They are on a mission of discovery. The upcoming nature of the bands mean everyone is looking for the next big thing, not the last big thing, and this means smaller crowds, and the magic of hearing something live for the first time.

The drugs are still there, as are the mad old hippies, but something is missing.

Downsides? Well, delegate festivals will never be able to house the big names, due to the smaller capacities of their venues, artists such as Stevie Wonder and U2 (Both at Glastonbury this year) could never be accommodated at an event within city walls. It could also be said that some of the festival magic is definitely missing, but while there is little madness about these events, but that doesn’t mean there is no magic. Watching Johnny Flynn play in The Unitarian Church last year during The Great Escape remains one of my most treasured live performance memories.

So for now I'm sticking my tent and wellies back in the attic and heading down to the Great Escape in Brighton. Beats splashing about in the mud listening to U2 any day.

Issue 1 // May 2010

U n i o n J a c k ? T

here are certain rules that come with being British. Firstly, one should indulge in self depricating humor. Self-flagulation in almost catholic proportions for the sake of comedy is one of our grand old traditions. Secondly, if several of you wish to purchase something in a shop, form an orderly queue. By all means tut slightly, but NEVER break the Queue, lest ye be publically denounced as a lout. Thirdly, when speaking with strangers, never let the conversation get beyond the superficial. Topics such as the weather and holidays both meet conversational expectations without exceeding them, and are thus perfect. Avoid topics such as sex, religion, and above all else politics. These topics could cause confrontation, break etiquette and impeed any chance of making a new aquaintance. If you have a problem, try not to make a fuss. Life is hard, get on with it. As demonstrated, Britishness carries with it certain stereotypes, not all of them as jolly

as the aforementioned. I aim to address this, and examine British artists that have addressed it in the past. Right up until the 60’s the Union Jack was flown proudly all over England. Every St George’s day, royal event or sporting occassion the streets would be full of flags, with bunting bearing the colours stretched from house to house. This was not, however, to last. During the late 70’s, far-right groups such as The National Front and Combat18, exploited high unemployment and youth dissolussion to pursue their own racist agenda. They took to the streets and marched, and in an attempt to add credibility to their cause, hijacked the flag and used it in their branding. The worst side effect of this was that ordinary people fearing an assosiation with the far right, dropped the flag. To a great extent, it has not recovered. Of course, there are exceptions. During football

the flag is still flown, and for the last night of thre proms it is still waved with all the pride of former years. One of the few recent airings was when Geri Halliwell wore it during The Brit Awards in 1997. Even as recently as this, wearing the flag (in the form of a tea towel she had sewn to her dress) made her the subject of a huge amount of press and attention. But why does the flag still shock people like this? Is it possible for someone to proudly wear the Union Jack without either being a racist or, as in Ms Halliwell’s case, a vaccous, cynical attention-seeking cunt? In this series of previously unseen photographs by noted photographer Paul Spencer, we celebrate the image of the Union Jack with some of the music idols who have defied critics and typified Britishness. Some have been denounced as racists, only to be vindicated at a later date, and yet they have not let this deter them. What could be more British than that?

Issue 1 // May 2010

Morris s e y 1995 Morrissey’s misanthropic take on the world could only have been British, combining dry cynicism with rapier wit. Both during his time with The Smiths and after during his solo career he constantly referenced and celebrated British culture: Irish blood, English heart yes I'm made of, And there’s no-one on earth I'm afraid of, And I, Will Die, With both of my hands untied. At the sametime Morrissey would not shy away from playfully poking fun at areas of the UK he was not so keen on, How I dearly wish I was not here, In the seaside town they forgot to bomb, Come, come, nuclear bomb. In 1992 Morrissey went on stage at Madstock draped in the Union Jack. The NME wrote a feature accusing him of “toying with far right/ facist imagery”. More recently, the NME again accused Morrissey of racism after an interview. Morrissey filed a lawsuit and the NME issued a retraction and an apology. He remains one of the most prolific British singer/songwriters of all time.

Steve Hillier of Dubstar The Artist For me, Britpop was the inevitable conclusion of a trend that started on the release of the Stone Roses album in 1989. From then on indie bands stopped looking to the future and instead took their Dad’s record collections for inspiration, kicked ‘art’ out of the rehearsal room and discovered they could be very, very successful by copying songs from the 1960s and 70s. Mix it up with a 90s swagger and some Union Jacks and Britpop was viewed as a revival of the great days of the ‘British Invasion’ of America, the perfect antidote to the American invention of Grunge. The Smiths had demonstrated that you could be popular and artistically credible, but Stone Roses demonstrated that an indie band could be populist instead and become even more successful. Indie stars became pop stars.

Inevitably the smell of major label money proved irresistible, but amazingly it didn’t ruin the party for once. Some of the albums were very good, even classic (Parklife by Blur springs to mind), there were some great singles too. But Britpop faded away fast, like all the other revivals before or since. And now in 2010 we have rediscovered that it’s better that an indie band is superb first and successful second. It never works the other way round, just ask Menswear. Ironically, the record industry has imploded due to the American invention of filesharing. They got us in the end.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Bl ur 1993

In 1994 Blur had just finished a rather disasterous tour of America. They were all but ready to quit when Damon Alburn suggested they adopt a more British image. Initially the rest of the band thought he was mad, and that such an idea could attract negative press. He pursuaded them, and along with photographer Paul Coello, this series of photographs were taken, displaying and exploring Britishness. In the first photo, Damon is overtly ‘punk’ed up’, sporting Ox Blood DM boots and a Fred Perry T Shirt. Whereas the other band members were a little slower to catch on, Englishness has remained a huge part of Blur’s make up, staying with them for the rest of their career. The spoken word verses to “Parklife” remain one of the defining moments for which Blur will be remembered with such affection. Garry Mulholland The Journalist I was living and working in Camden as Britpop went from a few movers and shakers talking big plans in the pub to the national obsession that was Blur Vs Oasis. It was nice to see some talented people I knew do well, but I had misgivings from the start. I’d just started my career in journalism and was mainly writing about black music. For me, Tricky, Massive Attack and Portishead had more credence as genuinely British pop than a bunch of ‘60s tribute bands on heroin. Britpop may have put some bums on seats and sold some mags and papers. But it reinforced the idea that ‘British’ meant white,

male, hetero and holding a guitar, a state of affairs that took well over a decade to get past. Ironically, it was Damon Albarn, in his Gorillaz guise, who has been instrumental in re-establishing an idea of multi-cultural British music again after the conservatism and mediocrity that Britpop unleashed. It also had a terrible effect on the British music biz that the industry is still paying for. Indie labels saw the money that Oasis made, kicked their interesting artists to the kerb, and signed a bunch of talentless sub-Oasis monkeys. The biz then threw millions at an entirely fake genre

that produced a grand total of three good bands - Blur, Oasis, Pulp, in that order. Common People was one of the great subversive pop events of my lifetime, and it wouldn’t have happened without Britpop. The same goes for the fascinating class conflict that was revealed by Blur V Oasis. But for me, the good was far outweighed by the bad. The collapse of the British music industry isn’t down to the internet. Its down to Britpop - the first major British pop ‘genre’ that made absolutely no sense to anyone outside of England. Even the name was a lie!

Issue 1 // May 2010

T he C l a s h 1985 Dubbed the “thinking man’s yobs” by NME, The Clash were instrumental in the politicising of punk rock. Committed leftists, the Clash headlined “Rock Against Racism” in 1978 in front of 80,000 people. Songs such as “Career Opportunities” commented on unemployment, which by 1978 had reached 7.5%. Career Opportunities are the ones that never knock, Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock. Like The Sex Pistols, The Clash were anti-monarchy and antiaristocracy. The Clash’s sound was formed from the very sound of depression and angry youth culture in the UK,and they remain perhaps the most widely respected punk band in history.

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Paul Spencer The photographer In 1977 at the tender age of 16 I began shooting bands at The Old Red Cow in Hammersmith when punk was in its infancy. It was a rough old place, it felt dangerous and it felt very British. At the time the Union Jack image was extensively used and plundered by bands. They understood and exploited with vigour the emotional nature of British imagery. The extreme far right also understood this... they targeted and claimed the British flag, Doc Martins, Ben Sherman shirts and the Harrington as their own. Over the years I’ve had the good fortune to work with some great British bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Morrissey, Elvis Costello and I’ve tried to incorporate the British theme into these images but commercially this has often caused problems. At the height of the Britpop era I shot “British Image No.1” for Blur. Reacting to political paranoia and fear of the far right, the British music press immediately branded it right wing and thuggish, so much so that the record company ordered a reshoot...” British Image No.2”. It turned out to be a great image, it did the job, but it was shot for all the wrong reasons. My view was that we hadn’t gone far enough with the British theme in first place. We’d been hijacked. It was the same old story; even now there is a real fear of being misunderstood when using bold British imagery.

Words Dominic VonTrapp Photography Paul Spencer www.paulspencer.co.uk

Issue 1 // May 2010

“ W e a re E ngl a nd, bo y s a nd girl s, a nd t he y c a n ne v e r ta k e t h at a w ay f rom u s .” T he S e x Pis t ol s 1996

No band were a finer example of working class Britishness than The Sex Pistols. On the day of the queen’s silver jubilee The Sex Pistols hired a boat and sailed down the river Thames playing their anti-monarchy anthem “God Save the Queen” Lydon said in interview: “If we had any aim it was to force our own, working class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of at the time” For a band that only released one album and four singles over one and a half years, the imprint The Sex Pistols left on the rock and roll landscape was undeniable. In 2005 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum a “piss-stain” In 2007 The Sex Pistols reformed including original bass player Glen Matlock, and though time had passed, none of the fire had left the band. In 2008 he announced to the crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival: “ We are England, boys and girls, and they can never take that away from us.”

Issue 1 // May 2010

Photography Sam Eddison Art Direction Laura Nixon Heather Falconer Styling Emily Bosence Make Up Bebe Newson Models Chani Ra Layzell Imogen Roup, BM Models

Clothes and hair bows: Oops! Fashion, www.oopsfashion.co.uk Coloured shoes: Irregular Choice, www.irregularchoice.com White Shoes: Sexyca, www.sexyca.co.uk

Issue 1 // May 2010

Bright colours, crazy prints, pineapple dance studios, blue hair and ‘shit wigs’, OOPS! meets Emma for a chunter... My first question is about something that we have both worked on, the artists in residence project at Quartier 21 in Vienna. Could you tell us about your time there? It was a great chance to work with a new set of people and get to know another countries way of the industry and their media. There were so many opportunities for collaborations and the chance to show at Vienna Fashion Week. I nicknamed the studio ‘The Palace of Dreams’ as it was such a great place to work from! I fell in love with the city; the strudel, the pretty buildings, the funfair, drinking shandy and the weird supermarket rules! Ooh and of course Café Corny, which I went to upon your recommendation! We both have a very colourful, ‘alternative’ style. I found Vienna to be quite conservative and got stared at a LOT, but my work got a really positive reaction. What kind of response did your work and your personal style get out there? I got very much the same kind of response. I'm quite accustomed to people hollering ‘blue hair’ at me down the street, so hearing it in German mixes it up a bit!

I think both the sense of style and attitude towards fashion is very conservative in Vienna and there is very much a divide in opinions when it comes to the industry. There seems to me to be two clear cut avenues in fashion here, there are those that see it merely as clothing and place a huge value on commercial appeal and wearability and others who appreciate the contemporary approach and revel in the creative and challenging end of the spectrum. I was super pleased that my work received a positive welcoming here and it made me realise that they really endorse design talent that thinks outside the box.

is to create a showcase which follows a totally British stereotype aesthetic. The exhibition features a string of high profile, UK based, designers who all hold a very strong visual signature and represent a cross section of the ‘cream of the crop.’ I saw one of your dresses on, my favourite programme, Pineapple Dance Studios. Are you a fan of ‘Star Man’? Oh my God, I love that show! It’s right up my street! LOVE Louie Spence, he’s a right corker and yes I am of course a true Star Man fan, so was happy to see my palm tree dress rocking the screens on a Sunday night!

“stay 100% focussed on what you want to achieve and be prepared to ride out the rough”

Can you tell us about the exhibition you are currently curating in Vienna? I'm SO excited as I’ve been secretly working on it for a few months now so it’s great to see things come into fruition. It’s called ‘Fish and Chips, Twice Please?!’ and it opens at the freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL on June 10th 2010. It is a contemporary fashion exhibition and the concept is to present the UK as a hub for International design talent as well as feature creatives from the surrounding industries like photography, music, illustration etc. I am working with a curator called Polona Dolzan and our vision

One of the pieces we borrowed from you was tie dyed. I have been tie dyeing a lot recently and have found it very nostalgic, I tie dyed my whole wardrobe when I was 10! What’s your earliest fashion design memory? I adore tie dye and pretty much anything crafty and messy…french knitting, crochet, embroidery…I was forever making random things when I was little from ropey handbags,

batik disasters, homemade perfume from rose petals and water in a jam jar! The earliest creation….I have always been obsessed with the Wizard of Oz, it’s still my favourite movie and I wanted to be Dorothy! Me and my Grandma made a green, floral, frilly number when I was about 6 and I rocked it with a little straw bag and a toy dog! You have worked on some really impressive projects, 3 seasons at London fashion week, your exhibition in Vienna, NYC for HIV, Irregular choice, Puma and of course Vauxhall. Is there one land mark project that you feel ‘rocketed you to stardom’?!! I don’t really like the whole stardom thing and like to always keep it more about my work but I think the real pinnacle that made me feel a true sense of achievement was when I did my first solo showcase at London Fashion Week. That was what I had always dreamed of, so for it to actually happen was weird. It’s bizarre to be suddenly so exposed and have all these people watching you present who you are. Another real stepping stone was when I was taken onboard by Irregular as that was a great platform to work from and they had been a brand that I had loved for so many years.

How did you feel when you left college? did opportunities come in straight away for you? or did you ever get the fear?! Yeah, I felt really strange after Graduate Fashion Week as you suddenly realise you are totally out there on your own and fashion is an incredibly competitive industry. I think the most important thing is to stay 100% focussed on what you want to achieve and be prepared to ride out the rough and put your heart and soul into EVERYTHING that you do. When I first finished uni I was skint from making my Grad collection and trying to scrape the pennies from selling boob pumps in Mothercare whilst wearing a polyester uniform…. however at the same time I started preparing my own press release, making new contacts, doing little side projects and work experience and made sure I was always staying creatively active. A few months after graduating I was then offered my position at Irregular so it paid off to not fall off the radar so soon after finishing my course. I only set up a year ago, so currently do everything myself, which I love, but I struggle finding time to design. Do you manufacture everything yourself or do you have a team? How I work kind of varies as I do a lot of side projects and freelance work. So for example my

‘Emma Bell for Irregular Choice’ collections were produced on a made to order, yet quite large scale basis. This included things like featuring them at trade shows and presenting to buyers etc, which gave me a good insight into the whole production side of the industry when it comes to dealing with manufacturers and suppliers. Some projects I have worked on for example print based briefs etc have been produced as part of collaborations so have been handled by however that company works. Since setting up solo I now tend to create mainly one off showcase pieces or work on private commissions so that allows it to be all dealt with personally. I tend to have a network of people that I continually work with which include a couple of great assistants and then people from other creative fields like a stylist, photographer and co. My main problem is being a control freak - How do you cope with delegation? I think the main thing with being a designer is that you have a very precise creative vision and you always strive to make things perfect. Every tiny detail is so important and I always have an exact idea of how I want something to look or work, so quite often I opt to do it myself! However I find creating and working with the perfect team makes things a lot easier as I put total trust in the people that I'm working with as I know that they totally understand.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Photography Bartolomy Styling Lisa Nicolaou, Victoria Lees Mgt. Hair Kentaro Kondo using Kiehlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make-Up Xabier Celaya using Inglot Make-up and Dermalogica Skincare Model Juli Molnar, Profile

Tights: Celeste Stein, www.mytights.com Shoes: Schuh, 0845 307 2484

Bangle: The Laden Shoeroom, 020 7247 2431 Tights: Celeste Stein, www.mytights.com

Issue 1 // May 2010

This Page Light green tights: Pamela Mann, www.mytights.com Tights: Celeste Stein, www.mytights.com

Issue 1 // May 2010

I'm all for the stripped down, one-piece animal skin ‘Caveman’ look, but where would we be if a forward thinking neandertal hadn’t decided to ditch the hide and step out in his lizardskin playsuit and mammoth skull hat for a hard day’s hunting, gathering and clubbing? Would we ever have moved on? It takes guts to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and valued in fashion (ie. To look different/daft) and to take a fashion risk. We must all endeavour to dress with daring and panache to save future generations of clothes wearers from a world of Heat recommended High Street clones. Popstars have a duty to take fashion risks. It’s part of their job description to lead us boldly into the fashion future dressed in ludicrous attention grabbing outfits. David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust incarnation was a welcome foray into androgyny and otherwordliness, much needed in a very brown decade.

make me a hat with a telephone on it please? Thanks.” Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can wear your telephone on your head? Dali would have been proud (and then he’d have sued). Ga Ga should be carried shoulder high through our streets, and be worn like a giant crowd hat, in celebration of her dedication to fashion risk taking on the front line of the war against Brand Bland. I hope that next time you’re deciding on that killer look, it will be influenced by a teacup carrying, uber Peggy Mitchell like Ga Ga and not say… Sienna Miller or some other pain in the Grazia style bore star of the yes/ no beige page.

Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can wear your telephone on your head?

When Leee Black Childers and his band of glitter strewn freaks landed at The Roundhouse in Camden in 1971 to perform Andy Warhol’s ‘Pork’, David Bowie was backstage with flowing locks in a felt hat and flares. Ever the chameleon, our Dave promptly ditched the denim and reached into his closet for his make-up bag. A rock icon was born. A dirt filled glitter trash can of underground New York transvestite couture had been pulled from the gutter and presented as mainstream. A great big platform heeled step had been taken, and we happily followed.

Attention grabbing is an art. Not “Art”; ‘an art’ , unless you’re Leigh Bowery. Lady Ga Ga should be given a medal for her unwavering commitment to looking equally ridiculous and fantastic. Her name is synonymous with outrageous outfits (and run of the mill pop songs). “Hi, Phillip Treacy? Ga Ga here, I’ve got a song about telephones coming out. Can you

Cherry picking the maggot fashion brains of Parliament and all that was Funkadelic; Hip Hop has been ground breakingly carefree in it’s adventures in the fashion jungle; Cazals, eye patches, backwards sportswear, big clock necklaces, shower caps and furry Kangols; all crucial bounds into freshness of threadism. Though more recently, colossal American sportswear and diamonds have been a rhymer’s best friend. This is a tired look guys, you need to step up your game. At least everyone’s least favourite urban pop-rap idiot, Dappy (out of N Dubz) keeps the spirit of Hip Hop fashion invention alive with his ludicrous hat wearing prowess. This is what our kids need to get them thinking out of the (hat) box. A star in a snood, or an urban turban; a berk in a homberg; a twat in a hat. “Take inspiration from the scalp decoration, of a Hip Hop nation with a fly reputation” May Dup 1987.

Moving on. Punk Rock = Rebellion. Punk Fashion, once a two fingered salute to accepted values, to conformity and “The Rules” soon descended into a homogenised eyelined “look”. Safety pins? Check. Bondage pants? Check. Leather jacket? Check. Daddy’s allowance to pay for it all? Cash, credit card or… cheque? Punk was about individual style in music and fashion. The Damned had Captain Sensible dressed as Dennis the Menace in a Beret with Dracula as their front man. Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex went for an army helmet/goggles/ hair bow with pvc dress combo, finished off with an ‘oh so cool’ dental brace. These were shows of defiance, originality and a quest to be unaccepted as different. As a contrast (and a cheap jibe) Kasabian’s ‘Tonight Matthew, we’re going to be Pink Floyd circa 1968 with Brandon Flower’s simpleton brother as lead singer’ shtick is backward looking, tiresomely retro and boring. Did Björk’s swan die for nothing? Come on guys, be a show-off, be a peacock, ruffle a few feathers. Okay, some people may think you’re a cock but you’ll be too busy gorging on bird seed to care. Take inspiration on your fashion quest from pink haired pusher of fashion boundaries Zandra Rhodes, who recently wrote: “You have to be brave enough to stick your neck out and brave enough to take a fall so that you can give your look an individuality, otherwise it’s not style at all”. I think she’s right. So go on, take that fashion risk, wear your teapot on your head. The only thing to fear, is fear itself……and looking like a twat. Good Luck.

Words Daniel Curtis, www.redmutha.com Illustration Paul Cemmick Model Lady Gaga Official Tribute Show

Issue 1 // May 2010

Photography Bartolomy Styling Lisa Nicolaou, Victoria Lees Mgt. Hair Kentaro Kondo using Kiehl’s Make-Up Xabier Celaya using M.A.C and Elemis Skincare Model Kirsten Varley, Select

“I think you’re nice but...” 50

Dress: Aqua, 020 7734 1300 Stockings: Falke, www.mytights.com Shoes: Schuh, 0845 3072484

Issue 1 // May 2010

She wears Blue baby doll dress: Osman Yousefzada, 020 7514 0000 Brown boots: Superdry, www.superdry.com Silver fairy necklace: Yunus & Eliza, www.yunus-eliza.co.uk Nude leather cuff: Warehouse, www.warehouse.co.uk He wears Black leather jacket: Mango, 020 7534 3505 Grey & black striped t-shirt: Wrangler, 0845 600 8383 Boots & Jeans: Superdry, www.superdry.com Watch: Thomas Sabo, 020 87407575 Black marble sun glasses: Mosley Tribes, 020 7722 8242

Black top: Miss Sixty, 0870 7516040 Skirt: Bryce Aime, 020 7313 9921 Orange shoes: Reem available from My Sugar Land, 020 7841 7131

Cream leather jacket: Aminaka Wilmont, www.net-a-porter.com Black ripped dress: Kimberley Dowling, available from Sick, 020 7033 2691 Boot necklace: Thomas Sabo, 020 8740 7575

She wears Cream top: Qasimi, www.qasimi.com Pink sheer shorts: Qasimi, www.qasimi.com Grey strappy shoes: Aminaka Wilmont, www.net-a-porter.com He wears Light blue jacket: Baracuta, www.baracuta-g9.com White and blue polo shirt: Penguin, www.penguinclothing.co.uk Jeans: Nude, available from Libertys, 020 7734 1234 Navy high top trainers: Lacoste, www.lacoste.com

Issue 1 // May 2010

Charlieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shoot

Photography Ben Petrucci, Garage Studios, www.flickr.com/photos/ben_petrucci Stylist Emma Sandham-King Model Elin Amos Clothes Charlotte Haggerty, www.charlottehaggerty.co.uk Illustration Ruth Ferrier

Issue 1 // May 2010

Over the past few years fur has gradually re-infiltrated London catwalks. Recent LCF MA graduate Eliana Dimitrakopoulou’s ‘Origins of Fur’ collection is undeniably striking, innovative and ground breaking in the world of fur design. I spoke to her about why she loves and uses fur, the impact of fur on the British fashion industry and most interestingly, fur sponsorships.

Words Emily Bosence Illustration Zoë Bryant

Dimitrakopoulou’s monkey-inspired collection is made from Danish farmed fox and mink furs. Her gradient dyed colourful pieces are reversible and use new fur techniques, Dimitrakopoulou’s aim being to revolutionise and start a new trend in fur design. Award winning Greek fur designer, Dimitrakopoulou, feels emotionally attached to the material “Fur; it’s our natural choice; fur is beautiful, warm, soft, elegant, glamorous, sexy; in other words everything a woman wants.“ Although many designers and women would strongly disagree with this statement, as Stella McCartney famously said, the fashion industry is a heartless one. Animal welfare is important to fur designers like Dimitrakopoulou as animals that are farmed under ‘bad conditions’ make a low quality product. Dimitrakopoulou strictly uses fur only from farmed animals under internationally recognised conditions for farming.

Fur farms were made illegal in the UK in 2003 after many successful campaigns by anti-fur groups. Dimitrakopoulou sees this decision as thoughtless due to redundancies, huge loss of income to the British economy and an increase in the manufacture of synthetic furs, most of which are polluting to produce, unrecyclable and non-biodegradable.

free high quality furs to British designers as well as funding their travel and ‘entertaining designers and stylists at their Scandinavian headquarters’.

“Fur - it’s our natural choice. fur is beautiful, warm, soft, elegant, glamorous, sexy”

In 2009 The Times printed an article entitled ‘Fur companies lure designers with freebies and sponsorship’. This article reported that several fur companies including Dimitrakopoulou’s sponsors, Kopenhagen Fur, allegedly ‘offered lucrative sponsorship deals and expensive trips to British designers in an attempt to break the taboo on fur’.

The article focussed on Danish companies Saga Furs and Kopenhagen Fur, providing

The Times included this quote from one young designer “No one appreciates just how tough it is right now. If you were offered free fur which looks glamorous and expensive and you were assured it was ethically farmed then why wouldn’t you go ahead and stick it in your show?”

In this case it was Dimitrakopoulou who initially contacted Kopenhagen Fur hoping for sponsorship, she was keen to work with one of the world’s largest providers of farmed fox and mink skins (Kopenhagen Fur frequently hold auctions selling up to 5 million mink skins per event).

“There was never a moment that I felt lured as it was my desire to get sponsored from the start. The cost to include a fur jacket into your collection as a fashion designer is too high. I'm very grateful to Kopenhagen Furs that sponsored my collection with the finest skins and made it as I dreamed it! It is totally understandable that these auction houses sponsor fashion designers, as it’s included in the company’s pr. Every company has to advertise their products by giving free samples, I don’t see anything wrong about that.” However, the Times reported that the sponsorship offer didn’t sit quite as comfortably with other designers who visited the farm. “It is not ethical at all. The animals are confined, they are in small, cramped spaces, they are not running around, they do not have a natural life. The furriers may say it’s humane but it depends on what you call humane.”

Anti-fur groups such as PETA and CAFT repeatedly inform us that minks are extremely solitary semi-aquatic creatures whose natural territory can be as much as 4km of waterway, only ever interacting with each other to mate. It has been said that keeping animals such as minks in restricted and crowded captivity can result in psychosis, self-mutilation and cannibalism.

as a fur designer when some of the dressers at her MA LCF show refused to dress the models. Dimitrakopoulou believes that “If you are a professional in the fashion industry you should be open minded as fashion is art”.

“If you are a professional in the fashion industry you should be open minded as fashion is art”

“There is nothing fashionable about the ways animals die for their fur. The companies are always going to maximise their profits at the expense of their animals. It is a violent, bloody industry. There is no nice way to rip the fur off an animal’s back.” Poorva Joshipura, director of special projects at Peta. Surprisingly Dimitrakopoulou has only ever had one negative experience in her career

As a fashion designer, I think that Eliana Dimitrakopoulou’s designs are striking and advanced which is why I have included them in this fashion section. Although I would personally never wear a new fur coat, I admire how Dimitrakopoulou fully understands the material and plays to it’s strengths.

If fur must be used in fashion, perhaps it should be used in this way, to create stunning, one off pieces of art, not mundane designs that will be mass produced and could be easily be substituted with a synthetic alternative.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Photography Sam Eddison Styling Emily Bosence Heather Falconer Make-up Lucy Brown Models Laura Nixon Imogen Roup, BM Models Illustration Miriam Mu単oz

Jewellery: Maria Lau, www.marialau.co.uk Latex accessories: Lady Lucie, www.ladylucie.com

Issue 1 // May 2010

photography Milo Belgrove styling Brett Isherwood models Shane Hawkins Amy Forrester Illustration ZoĂŤ Bryant

Issue 1 // May 2010

When sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not busy photographing herself (or willies), Birmingham based photographer Alis enjoys a chip butty or two whilst photographing those who she deams to have interesting and curious features...

styling & photography Alis Pelleschi accessories Christopher-john Sumner Illustration Miriam MuĂąoz

Issue 1 // May 2010

Take a stroll around any town in the country and some form of street art is likely to catch your eye. Street art, love it or hate it, usually comes in the form of spray painted graffiti. However, recently a much craftier movement has taken to our streets. This underground hit is known as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;yarnbombingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Yarnbombing is crocheted or knitted graffiti, the art of bringing texture, colour, surprise and an all round wooliness to everyday objects. Words Carley Taggart Photography Milo Belgrave Thanks Yarn Bombers: Elida Hall Lindkvist, Jay Kendall, Sarah Hill, Tora Huston, Amy Lavelle Temptation Cafe 56 Gardner Street Brighton BN1 1UN

Issue 1 // May 2010

Yarnbombing started it’s life stateside in Houston, Texas by Magda Saueg aka PolyCotN and her accomplis Akrylic, the originators of the yarnbombing crew ‘Knitta Please’. This knitted revolution was born out of boredom and a reaction to their dull, grey, city environment. In 2005, an inspired Magda covered the doorknob of her clothes shop in blue and pink acrylic yarn. This doorknob got a lot of love and attention from customers and passersby alike. Magda, along with her little ego boost, took her tagging to the streets covering a stop sign pole outside the shop. Again, this grabbed people on their everyday journeys, stopping and taking photos of this new form of street art. The first yarn graffiti crew, Knitta Please, was born. Knitta Please have gone from strength to strength in the last few years. Tags (covering an object in a whole crocheted or knitted piece) have included doorknob covers, car antennas, organic forms such as flowers, mushrooms and rocks, sweaters for trees and they have even tagged a stone in the Great Wall of China. Magda, like many successful street artists, has moved into the international art world of exhibiting and creating installations. Perhaps her most impressive and well known piece is her psychedelia inspired crochet covered bus in New Mexico.

American yarnbombing embraces and celebrates non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. It is street art designed to make people smile; giving a tree a jumper; creating a ‘happening’ and most importantly, bringing crochet and knitting to the masses. Everyday surprises make my heart skip - hearing a stranger sing on the tube, funny toilet graffiti, genuine acts of kindness, all these things add to the pleasures of life. However, the American attitude to yarnbombing feels like it is lacking something. Now yarnbombing has hit the UK, a few groups actively operate here, my personal favourite being Knit The City (www.knitthecity.com). ‘Operating from a secret underground wool-lined bunker in the heart of the busy metropolis of London. Knit the City’s Yarn Corps spend most of their lives operating under assumed names and living their lives like normal people…Knit the City are part of an ongoing campaign to guerrilla knit the city of London, and beyond that the world. No part of the city is safe from Knit the City’s woolly war on the mundane, humdrum and expected. We will bring woolly sunshine to you wherever you dwell. We’re nice like that.’ The Knit the city crew assembled in London in February 2009, they consist of members Deadly Knitshade, Bluestocking Stitcher, The Purple Purler, Lady Loop, Shorn-a the dead, Knitting Ninja and The Fastener.

Knit The City prefer to ‘yarnstorm’ rather than ‘yarnbomb’ to avoid any terrorist associations. They have been responsible for a lot of storming around our amazing capital - the Tate Modern bollards, St Paul’s Cathedral’s belisha beacon, South Bank’s London Pride statue, Westminster’s Parliament Square phone box and the barrier at Covent Garden to name but a few. In my mind, groups like Knit The City are leagues ahead of our American cousins, due to their ‘art installation’ style approach to yarnstorming. Their work shows a fantastic joint effort of craft and comedy, all installations are carefully and thoughtfully planned. Their most recent conquest was the ‘Knitmare before Christmas’, the target was the ballerina statue outside the Royal Opera House. The festive themed installation involved small and detailed knitted figures representing all of the characters from The Nutcracker, scaling the statue with knitted rope, it has been extremely well blogged with accompanying video and poetry on www.knitthecity.com. The yarnbombing phenonomen is another great example of the UK taking an American concept and not only embracing it but evolving it. All of those involved in the scene have promoted positivity, creativity and most importantly made people smile. To me, that is what Yarnbombing (or storming) is all about.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Gi l l i a n L e e Smi t h A lifetime fascination with storytelling, history, fairytales and folklore, has led Gillian to create imagery based on the everyday whirling mind of a person who does not always wish to be rooted in the realistic present. Glimpses of characters tell stories that resonate with melancholic sentiment. Puppets and dolls with heart and emotion, long lost souls, decadence and decay and the contrasts and complexities of life. All are endlessly captivating and thought provoking.

Baroque and Victorian periods are especially evident in Gillian’s designs and her work often delves into the expression and characterisation of our human nature, which we may hide away and only ever glimpse at when prompted by a reflection of our inner selves. Gillian’s character sculptures in particular are a nod towards her own imaginations, avid reading and childhood dreams. They are a way of seeking the perfect representation of our character. Each tells an original tale, with a single image that endeavours to embody a whole life story in an uncomplicated way.

Lucy Harvey LilyBeFunky Using vintage and recycled materials, Nottingham based Lucy Harvey likes to make unusual accessories. A renowned collector, her inspiration derives from quirky collectibles and interesting artefacts ‘I have to collect buttons, in jars, in tubs, in old biscuit tins, in bowls and eventually when I run out of those I’ll be storing my buttons in my underwear draw. I like to collect things. I can’t throw it away, it may come in useful at some point in the distant future. I have fabric I daren’t cut because its so beautiful I just like to look at it. I have gadgets with pointy edges, pots full of sparkly goo and many vintage patterns with no instructions. Is it a coat? A hat? Who knows! Most of all I leave crafting debris behind me like a Hansel and Gretel trail of crumbs. I love it, I couldn’t and wouldn’t live any other way’.

photography Paul Larkins Illustration Miriam Muñoz

Issue 1 // May 2010

K a t i e Pi n k n e y M o l l y ’ s M u m Molly’s Mum is a unique collection of wearables and collectibles for grown ups and little people. Inspired by Katie’s ‘little person’. Katie is inspired by the small things in life, a daft pair of pants swinging on a washing line or a much loved children’s bear tucked into the side of a push chair.

Working in free-machine embroidery she mainly creates brooches, purses and bags for practical everyday use as well as unusual collectable characters. Katie loves to use vintage fabrics, buttons and trimmings and have built up a delicious stash over the years.

Li a m W o o d g a t e s V i n t a g e R e c l a i m e d Vintage reclaimed is the creation of Liam Woodgates, whose designs and creations have developed from his passion for collecting objet trouvé and Vintage jewellery. Liam’s hobby soon developed into a full time obsession, collecting vintage jewellery, random bits and pieces, and anything that gained his curiosity and conjured nostalgic thoughts. Each creation unique, and loved for its nostalgia and curiosity. Each piece treasured and greatly admired by

others. All products created under the Vintage. Each piece created in the jewellery collections use as much recycled material as is possible and are created with as little impact on the environment reducing my businesses carbon footprint whilst at the same time still providing a high standard of quality and service. Vintage Reclaimed try to minimise any impact on the environment in as many ways possible, including sourcing all materials locally if possible.

Issue 1 // May 2010

Hopkins uses sculpture to expose flaws in our visual perception. Having established the limits of human vision he can play with our expectations and tease our brains into accepting an image that isn’t there. In the time it takes your brain to catch up with his wizardry the visual world before you has morphed back to ‘reality’. In that moment of unsettling exhilaration, you realise that the picture of the world you have been relying on, is in fact a construction of your mind, pieced together by some information; some memory; and some creative engineering.

Imagine a world where you constantly have to re-evaluate your surroundings because your eyes cannot be trusted. You’re in it. If you’re looking for some proof, it’s time to become acquainted with the artwork of James Hopkins. His sculptures will shake up your complacent acceptance of the world and have you questioning your very eyesight.

James says: “Playing the role of the trickster is great. It is very similar to playing the magician’s slight of hand. Experiencing an illusion in a gallery or a magic show often leaves the viewer with similar epistemological questions.” Hopkins did his sculpture degree in Brighton back in 1998. Since then he has completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths and has exhibited across the globe, from Paris to Moscow, Hamburg to New York, promoting disbelief along the way. “I want to explore the role of judgment in connection to the process of vision and investigate different ways of looking that embrace perceptual effects. The work is not just about an illusion or effect but more importantly a way into discovering that sight (our most relied upon sense when looking at art) can be untrustworthy.” James is part of a long tradition of trompe l’oeil in art, literally translated as ‘trick the eye’. Beginning with paintings that were so ‘real’ people were forgiven for reaching forth to pluck the fruit from the canvas. This pursuit prevailed in the 17th Century Dutch vanitas paintings that inspired James’ work. The paintings depicted the finery of the day – vases, books, and fruit, musical and scientific instruments – arranged alongside skulls, to remind people of the temporary and frivolous nature of such niceties.

“I read this genre of still life painting as being a celebration of life and wanted to convey that in my own work, but in a more contemporary manner. When we die we lose all our indulgences and possessions, so the skull works are saying enjoy life, celebrate it while it lasts,” said James.

“There is something psychologically unnerving about being presented with a balanced object. Although they appear fixed or visually static they also seem to create statements of how we imagine tripping up or falling over.”

“Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists.”

His own skull works have seen lutes substituted for guitars, with skulls’ teeth mapped out in beer bottles, clearly relics from his own life, as he tells me most of his days begin with a hangover now that he has quite smoking and substituted cigarettes for alcohol. His references from contemporary life range from The Simpsons to Jimi Hendrix, as he manipulates images and objects not only to question visual perception but to draw out meaning that comments on their function or purpose:

“Purple Haze is a perspective sculpture of an electric guitar. It has been rendered in a specific manner in order to relate with expressing a visual interpretation of sound, whilst also referencing an optimum glamour saturation associated with fame and the spectacle of performance.”

James talked about the first of Sol LeWitt’s Sentences on Conceptual Art, when discussing his role as a trickster: “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.” In a world where things seem to gravitate towards a definite answer, we could all do with facing a few of James’ philosophical questions. While it’s not practical to question the presence of the pavement with each step forward, it’s exciting to realise that there is more to explore in this world than the construction we think we can see. To see more of James Hopkins’ work and for news on his up coming shows visit www.jameshopkinsworks.com

Words Kathryn Evans Illustration Miriam Muñoz photograph of james Jean-Luc Brouard

Like the vibration of a guitar string, James’ work wavers between opposite states, evoking a series of simultaneously present contradictions. His art both protrudes and recedes and at times is as flat as it is threedimensional. Acting as a commentary to his own practice, his series of balancing artworks reflect the fine line he treads between definite outcomes, leaving the viewer clutching onto their memories of stability. James admits:

Issue 1 // May 2010

Words Amy Lavelle Illustration Rachel Williams

Issue 1 // May 2010

Give in to glitz and glamour and surrender yourself to the hypnotic twirl of a nipple tassel (or two). Go on… Roxy Velvet is the princess of the burlesque and she’s showing us how it’s done. With her bombshell, Marilyn Monroe reminiscent looks, Roxy Velvet epitomises sex appeal, wooing her audiences and making pulses race with her burlesque and fetish shows and dramatic aerial performances. “I always wear make up and heels, even when I'm going to hang off a rope.”

beliefs with her art by using her performances to both exploit and challenge conventional ideals of femininity.

Dangling herself from a gigantic bird cage 20 ft off the ground is just the start of it though; this performer earned her sequins exploring the darker side of sexuality.

Her horror acts further this notion, allowing her to trade on her sexuality to captivate her audience before horrifying them with the grotesque. Interestingly, it is ‘Open Heart Surgery’ that Roxy claims is the most pornographic of her acts, despite the fact it doesn’t involve full nudity. “There’s something instinctively compelling about the sight of blood, even when it’s fake.”

“It’s about offering the audience a safe, generic model of contemporary female sexuality and then completely destroying that in front of them.”

Not just the ordinary song and risqué dance, Roxy promises to keep you entranced, taking the traditional striptease and ripping it to shreds. Literally… Point in case being one of her favourite acts: the dramatically explicit and grotesquely graphic ‘Open Heart Surgery’. Viewers be warned, this isn’t for the faint of heart: you may find yourself watching through parted fingers.

Yet, despite the somewhat heavy sounding nature of these shows, Roxy insists that burlesque remains a ideal remedy for life. “It’s up close and it’s imperfect and light hearted, which is a pleasant antidote to airbrushed photos and hi-def television.”

“Open Heart Surgery is a graphic horror act about a psychotic nurse.

And, with performers such as Dita Von Teese becoming the main stream, burlesque is only gathering supporters and further infiltrating the public sphere.

“It begins with a textbook striptease and develops into drug induced blood frenzy with brutal acts of self-harm such as cutting out a prosthetic heart and eating it.

Roxy, however is determined to keep you guessing. “There is still a huge amount for me to learn and discover but not necessarily in the burlesque genre.

“Occasionally people faint during the act but mostly they can’t look away.”

“I won’t be hanging up my sequins just yet though thanks.”

So what is it about the horror burlesque that attracts Roxy? Raised as a staunch feminist, Roxy reconciles her

“Female burlesque reflects contemporary feminism, which is both feminine and self-possessed and creative.”

Dim the lights, queue the sexy music, and for God’s sake: will someone please get me a gigantic champagne flute to roll around in! I’ve fallen for the burlesque. And Roxy Velvet.

Issue 1 // May 2010

mat tsewell.co.uk spot tingandjot ting.co.uk

Illustrator Matt Sewell designed our back cover for issue one. Here he talks to Spindle about work and women… What inspires you when you create your illustrations when not commissioned by a client? The spark of inspiration for an idea for personal work comes from me bugging out over something. Like an old illustrated children’s book, a chord change, a repeat pattern, a phrase, mysticism, some kind of esoteric knowledge. Inspiration can come in all shapes and sizes but only stems from me being incredibly excited about something. How much creative freedom are you given on a commercial job? It really depends as all jobs and clients are different. I am quite lucky as a lot of my clients want to work with me just because they love my work, so they’re really keen just to let me do my thing. But most editorial illustrations have been planned out in advance by an art director and a graphic designer so its just a case of the illustrator interpreting their ideas. But personally I’ll always try and squeeze in a few of my things in there to keep it interesting, like a pod of dolphins swimming through space, or a fox hiding behind a tree.

Aside from your talent, how did you ensure that you stood out within the very competitive world of art and illustration? I think I’ve just always tried to do my own thing whilst keeping abreast of what is going on out there. I’ve never had any kind of plan, just been free-wheeling. It’s a really tough business though with new illustrators being born every minute willing to work for nowt to get a break, so yeah maybe a plan would be good.

Who are your favourite artists of the moment? I don’t really follow new artists, there’s too many, it does my head in. Especially now with the internet, your just bombarded by new shit all day and everyday. Its like lots of people all shouting at the same time, so I don’t go looking. I prefer to go and stumble upon an old book, poster or record sleeve get hyped and research from there.

What is your favourite piece of your own work and why? To be honest I cant really pick one out, anything where I have had a chance to get out of the studio, travel and meet cool people. I'm very lucky and my job/career/path every now and then gives me amazing opportunities to live life.

Theres seems to be a practise these days of art students being taught to copy. I get a lot of emails from students and up-and-comers asking me about how I do my stuff and what’s my inspirations, like there are short cuts to being good. You need to get out there and do the work, draw for years in your own style and be creative as much as possible, rather than surfing the net and copying whatever is cool.

Who would your dream job be designing for? Some company in California, Japan or anywhere with a warm climate that would take me and my lovely girlfriend over for a month or so and give me the chance to make some of the work that’s in my head. There is so much I want to do, just finding the time and the funds is the hard part.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom, I'm lucky as I have some of the most creative and amazing artists as friends whose work is always around me. Like Pinky, Neasden Control Centre and Eko, these dudes are in it for the long haul, crafting their style for years through the ups and downs, just trying to keep up with them is my mission.

Do you like to think your work has a message or do you work purely on aesthetics? I’ve never really tried to convey a message with my work but I do try to get across a “feel” in all my personal work. I want people to get a buzz or a glow or something, just a tiny spark is all I want. Women feature frequently in your work, are you inspired by women in any way? They feature in my work because they are amazing, aesthetically and beyond. I am really interested in stone-circles, ancient civilisations and ley lines and all that. Many moons ago early-Britains worshipped the earth mother, they saw and felt the magic and wonder of life/birth in the hills, trees and mountains that surround us. I think we need to go back to simpler times, we are surrounded by magic but we’re so caught up in the net of everyday life we don’t want to look for it anymore. When did you realise you were good enough to make illustration your career? I’ve always known that I was going to do something creative as a job since I was a kid, theres never been an option really. I try to run away from it sometimes but it keeps pulling me back. I don’t really see my career as being an illustrator either, sometimes I feel more of a hustler because I may not have an illustration job for a month or so but in that time I will have been commissioned to paint walls, teached workshops, had an exhibition and painted a flock of birds.